


waste

by fallfromstars



Category: American McGee's Alice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-17
Updated: 2012-05-17
Packaged: 2017-11-05 13:09:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/406715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fallfromstars/pseuds/fallfromstars
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A mind is a terrible thing to waste. [pre-game American McGee's Alice]</p>
            </blockquote>





	waste

**Author's Note:**

> Because I am a sucker for well-imagined Alice rewritings.

There is simply no understanding Alice's logic.

There is no understanding the logic of _anyone_ insane enough to get themselves committed to an asylum, to be truthful, but it seems as if the pretty little girl with dark hair and electric absinthe eyes will never stop spewing nonsense.

The doctor makes the common mistake, attending to her on a hot day. She is slick with sweat, eyes dizzy and unfocused.

He asks her what's wrong.

 _Fire fire burning bright_ , she says. _Is this Hell?_

"You're not dead, Alice," says the doctor with a halfhearted smile. "Only bad people go to Hell, and you're a good girl. There's no need to worry now. You're safe here. I'm here to look out for you."

 _No, no_ , say the askew lips, the ghost mouth. _My fault, my fault. The fire, burning bright. Wake up, Alice, wake up!_

She begins to struggle, legs quivering, eyes squinted shut in pain.

_Fire fire burning bright! Burn burn, burn it all!_

The doctor's hands are stronger than she is.

 _Ashes ashes, we all fall down!_ she screams in response to the others down the hall, across the way, the others alive and kicking and incoherent just like her.

A needle in the vein and the world stops burning.

A needle in the vein and she falls silent.

She dreams of fire, fire burning bright in the forests of the night.

And the dream broken and the fall, the fall that didn't lead to a rabbit hole but led her _here_.

She awakes with a scream on her lips, bites down when ordered to do so and chokes on the copper taste of her own blood.

She sleeps and sleeps and dreams of awaking in Wonderland, awaking somewhere far away, but any prince that would kiss her to break the spell would only offer _another_ syringe, another delay to the inevitable day where she will have to be _put down_ for the safety of others around her.

(Best to let her lie.)

The doctor does not have especially high regards for her.

There's no understanding her logic.

Alice Pleasance Liddell, pretty as she is, pitiful as she is, will never stop spewing nonsense.

Pretty pitiful Alice will never recover.


End file.
